10 Free Tools for the Home Office

One of the fun parts of starting to work-at-home, is to outfit the home office. Buying software, gadgets, and tools can make you feel like that dream of working at home is becoming  a reality. But if you’re not careful, it can put you deep in debt before you’ve taken your first order. Fortunately there are a host of free resources that can give you the tools you need including word processing, screen capture and graphic software, voicemail, and productivity tools.

Here are my top 10 free resources for the home office.

AVG – One thing no office can do without is virus protection. There are a host of full-service protection software out on the market and you’d likely do well to invest in one. But if you don’t have the cash on hand, a good basic protection is offered for free by AVG Technologies. AVG Free offers protection against viruses, spyware, adware, and Identity theft. Plus it has a click safe feature so you can click on search results safely. I have been running AVG Free on my Asus which I use for writing and Internet browsing when I’m away from home. The software is a reasonable size (meaning not too big), easy to install and use. There are upgraded options as well that offer greater security from spam, unsafe downloads and instant messaging threats.

Google Calendar -The Google calendar isn’t my favorite planner system, but for the price and having an online system (as opposed to a computer system that requires phone syncing), its not bad. I can text my appointments to my calendar to avoid going online to add my events. You can have multiple calendars in one place allowing outsiders to access them (or just one of them). This is ideal if you have a virtual assistant who needs access to your schedule or if you’ll be appearing in public and want others to know when and where you’ll be.

Remember the Milk is a to-list management system that lets you list and prioritize your to-dos. You can send your self reminders via email, text or instant message. It also offers plug ins for iGoogle, Google Calendar, Netvibes, and a host of other services including mobile access, Jott, and more. Signing up is free and easy.You can add Remember the Milk to iGoogle and/or Google Calendar or you can add and learn about other ways to use Remember the Milk in the Service section. My only beef with RTM is that I can’t text my to-dos to my list directly.

Gantt Project Software offers a free easy to use chart-based project management tool that allows you to create tree-hierarchies to help track tasks within projects, create dependencies between tasks (complete task A before completing task B), create PDF or HTML reports and exchange data with Microsoft(R) Project(TM) and spreadsheet applications.The software can not only help keep business and work-related projects in order, but it can be used for personal projects such as home improvement plans.

Skype is  a very easy to use Internet phone calling system. Its easy to download and install, and the program walks you through a test call to make sure its working correctly. The biggest advantage to Skype is that its free its free to call others who also have Skype.  For the business crowd, Skype offers conference and video calls, mobile Skype and instant messaging. Through Skype applications you can have a virtual receptionist and even record your calls (which is great for podcasts!).

But Skype isn’t limited to Internet calling. You can call landlines and cell phone for a fee. The cost is extremely affordable using Skype Credit in a pay-as-you go manner or through a subscription. SkypeOut calls are about 2.1 cents per minute or for $3.00 a month you can have unlimited calls throughout the United Stats and Canada ($10 worldwide).  For about $60 a year you can get a SkypeIn number whereby people can call you from landlines or cell phones.

SimpleVoiceBox.com can operate as a traditional voicemail or as an information broadcaster. It offers a host of features including multiple configurations (do you want your listeners to be able to leave a message or not), online management tool, RSS Feed capability, email notifications and extended message time. The best part is that you can get instant activation, its private and secure, there are no set-up fees, and no commitments or contacts.The free service comes with a toll dial-in number, private access code and unlimited use. Simple voice box also offers fee-based services that can include a toll-free or private number and no access code.

OpenOffice.org offers free word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and data base software that rivals MS Office Suites. It doesn’t have all the features found in Word and other Office products (has anyone used ALL the features in their office products?), but it offers good document creation with the ability to be shared and modified by Word users as well.

GIMP is a free open source program that will allow you to fix, correct, retouch, and enhance your photos. You can save your projects in a variety of formats including JPEG (JFIF), GIF, PNG, TIFF and even special use formats such as the multi-resolution and multi-color-depth Windows icon files.  And its compatible with Linux, Windows (XP, Vista), Mac OS X, Sun OpenSolaris, and FreeBSD.

Jing is a free and incredibly easy to use screen capture software. Once installed, you have a little yellow ball that sits at the top of your screen waiting for you to request a picture or video. When opened, its easy to pick the area you want to capture and then you simply poke the picture or video icon. You can hook up your mic to add audio. The free version saves file in flash and you can easily send to Screencast or Flikr. For a $14.95 per year subscription, you can get a more advanced version that lets you save in MPEG-4 and can automatically upload to Youtube. You can even use your favorite movie editor to edit it. Both versions have a limit of 5 minutes of video, but experts say that for basic website needs, 3 minutes is all you need anyway.

iGoogle offers one place to manage your work-at-home office. Its a start page feature offered by Google that allows you to feed your calendar, Remember the Milk tasks, email, weather, news, RSS feeds, and more. You can create multiple categories for your page as well. For example I have the main page that has all my work related gadgets and a fun page with game and YouTube (for when I want to waste time). It the page my browser opens to when I start the day so that I can see all that I need to do and access all the resources to get it done.

Of course this list isn’t complete. There are host of other free resources that can help you start and run your business. But these resources offer the basic tools needed in a home office. To get more great virtual tools visit Better Living On the Web where I share ways to turn the web into your personal assistant.